Church reaches out to young adults

Wednesday

Apr 30, 2008 at 12:01 AMApr 30, 2008 at 12:08 AM

Lighthouse World Prayer Center in Paradise Valley is the home to a new type of church in the Poconos just for young adults. "This is rare because young adults are the most absent age group from church in America, including the Poconos," Pastor Nathan Kollar said.

MELANIE VanDERVEER

Lighthouse World Prayer Center in Paradise Valley is the home to a new type of church in the Poconos just for young adults. "This is rare because young adults are the most absent age group from church in America, including the Poconos," Pastor Nathan Kollar said.

Kollar started the youth church under the cover of the Lighthouse World Prayer Center two years ago. The uniqueness of Mission Young Adult Church is that it is geared toward the 18 to 30 age range. The youth church currently has approximately 50 regulars with the hopes of adding more in the near future.

"Usually, people stop going to church when they go to college and come back when they have kids five to 10 years down the road," Kollar said. The interdenominational church is held every Tuesday night from 7:30 to 9 p.m. The service consists of food, a full band and socializing with new-found friends.

"We even have some non-Christian people getting involved. Everyone is welcome," Kollar said. The church does a lot of outreach programs and has recently added child care to make it more convenient for parents to join the church and get involved.

Kollar has had the idea of this church for some time now. "I wanted to do this because too many young people are not involved in the church. It is very casual and many of the messages are toward this age group," Kollar explained.

Kollar is a credentialed pastor with the Assemblies of God and has been at Lighthouse for more than six years now. His primary responsibility at Lighthouse has always been the music, but at the youth church, he has more of a pastoral role.

Kollar's father, Charles, is the pastor of Lighthouse World Prayer Center. "Lighthouse has roots that go back to the 1940s," Kollar said. "The church has gone through three name changes but it has been LWPC since 2002."

Pastor Charles is proud of what his son has done with the youth church. "It's terrific that Nathan has started the youth church," Charles Kollar said. "A young adult church probably doesn't exist anywhere else."

Lucely Vargas of Tobyhanna has been a member of the church for about two months now. "I love it. It's great because they reach out to youth. They talk about the issues of our age group." She feels that Kollar brings a special something to the table. "God has touched him in a special way," Vargas said.

Kollar is referred to as a gifted songwriter and has recorded four CDs. He is currently working on a new Praise CD which is set to release in the fall. He has quite a passion for music and he made sure to incorporate that into the youth church.

Kollar's father said "Nathan is 25 going on 60 and has been like that his whole life." He certainly has accomplished a lot and he doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon.

Keith Santiago of Tobyhanna has been a member of the church for about three years now. "I got connected with the young adult church and it has helped me out a lot," Santiago said. "It is a good place to go to be with good people and grow in the spiritual sense. It is great to be able to help people in a positive way."

Santiago feels that this is what Kollar was meant to do. "God is using Nathan to reach the young people in this area. He is bringing the good news of the gospel to the area."

The church is cross-cultural with every race, background and culture accounted for. "It is a very diverse church and there are no cliques there. Everyone just comes together. There are not many churches out there like that," Brent Dameoise of East Stroudsburg said. Dameoise has been a member of the church for more than two years now. "Nathan is a big inspiration in my life. He has such a gift from God."

With so many colleges nearby, the number of people in the area in this specific age group is phenomenal. "We bring a van to East Stroudsburg University every Tuesday night to bring people out to the church," Kollar said. With so many new people coming out to services each week, the hopes of the church growing is a very likely one.

"My hope is that it will grow and grow and become an established church in the area," Kollar said.

Early in April, Kollar held a big outreach for the community. It consisted of services to help in four different areas. The series included money and career, sex and relationships, health, and purpose.

The topics were age-specific and many attended each week. The church added members thanks to this outreach.

Along with Sunday services, the church offers nursery and preschool sessions, kids church, young teens church and high school church sessions. There are also many other groups affiliated with the church.

"Someone once said healthy things grow. This is just growing and growing, so there is something really healthy there," Kollar said.